1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including a conveying mechanism for conveying toner collected from a surface of an image bearing member.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in the image forming apparatus, the toner remaining on the surface of the image bearing member is removed by a cleaning portion such as a cleaning blade, and collected in a collecting container through a predetermined conveying path. The collecting container is detachably attached to a main body of the image forming apparatus to clean and reuse the collecting container, in which case the toner may scatter or the surrounding area may become polluted.
As an invention for solving such problem, an invention described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-169441 is disclosed. The invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-169441 relates to a configuration in which a cover is arranged at a terminating end of the conveying path of the toner to be collected. According to such configuration, discharging failure of the collected toner can be prevented, the task of attaching the collecting container to the apparatus main body can be facilitated, and the cover can be prevented from being closed without the collecting container attached to the apparatus main body.
However, the collecting container of the collected toner is installed so as to weave through a gap of a space inside the apparatus main body due to high density of the mounted components inside the image forming apparatus of recent years. Thus, when performing maintenance on the inside of the apparatus main body to change the component, the conveying path itself for conveying the collected toner needs to be moved, which increases the maintenance time and scatters the toner accompanied by the dissembling of the conveying path. Therefore, the invention described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-169441 is not sufficient to address the problem described above.